The Magnaura
(The Byzantine Senate)
The Protoasecretes shuffled across the floor of the Magnaura. He could be heard grumbling to himself about how long it had taken to clean the building after the last Senate session. As he reached the doors, he turned around and sighed wistfully at the immaculate condition of the interior. He knew it would not last long.
With a resigned shrug of his shoulders, he signaled the guards at the entrance, who promptly unbarred the great door. It took only moments for the stream of bodies to rush through, variously talking, laughing, shouting, and gesticulating wildly, depending on the Senator and his circumstances. All were followed by servants carrying candles, documents, quills, ink, and, to the Protoasecretes' dismay, copious quantities of alcohol.
After the initial rush quieted down, the Protoasecretes cleared his throat and stood up at the front of the room.
"Senators of Byzantium! Welcome to the great Magnaura, the traditional home of the Senate. I must first start off by paying proper homage to the great Basileus Aleksios Komenus, first of his line. May he live a long and prosperous life and may the Komnenid Dynasty last for all eternity! Let no Senator forget that we are assembled here to serve his will and aid him in the governance of Roman Empire!"
"Now, since some of you are newly risen to the rank of Senator, let me remind you of the basic rules of the Senate. First, Edicts and Amendments can only be proposed while the Senate is in session. You can conduct business in here whenever you wish, but legislation itself is restricted to formal sessions. I will notify you when sessions begin and end and my word on the matter is final!"
"Second, do not bother proposing legislation that you are not qualified to propose. To prevent us from being paralyzed by pointless paperwork, our wise ancestors have previously decreed that various amounts of seniority of rank are required to propose certain numbers of Edicts and Amendments. Any Senator who exceeds his alloted quota will have his excess submissions stricken from the record, regardless of their nature!"
"Third, with few exceptions, all legislation must be seconded by two Senators before it can be put to the vote. Do not come whining to me if your prized Edict does not end up on the ballot because you were too lazy to gather supporters before you proposed it!"
"Fourth, make sure your legislation is formated in the proper manner! It is hard enough to keep track of the mass of paperwork that goes on in this building. For our own sanity, please format your legislation in the following manner: Edict/Amendment X.Z: Text of Edict/Amendment. (X = Number of the Senate session, Z = Number of the Edict/Amendment within the Senate session.) For example, the third Edict proposed at the fourth Senate session would look like this: Edict 4.3: All Senators will wear togas. The numbers of all Edicts and Amendment proposed during an Emergency Session will be the same, but with an E preceding the numbering (i.e. Edict E4.3).
"Finally, violence will not be permitted in the Magnaura! Limit your attacks to verbal sparring only! Any Senator bringing a weapon into the building, or raising his fist to a fellow Senator, will be forcibly removed by the guards. This is Constantinople, not Rome! We do not stab each other to death in this Senate!"
The Protoasecretes looked around the room and noticed that few men were paying any attention to him. He muttered some obscenities under his breath and glared at the gathered body of Senators. When nothing changed about their demeanor, he sighed, stoop up as straight as he was able, and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"I hereby declare the Byzantine Senate to be in Session! The floor will remain open for debate and legislation until 3:30pm EST on Thursday, June 5th, at which point there will be 48 hours alloted for voting."
With that, he sat down to watch the inevitable chaos.
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